Tag Archives: No Jobs bloc

“Thames Valley Plan C originated from a series of discussions between socialists, anarchists, feminists and communists about how economic changes were impacting on the ways the left traditionally organised it’s resistance to capitalism. Our collective understanding of ‘work’ expands beyond the things we do in return for a wage to also include the labour that goes into reproducing life itself, such as care and house work. This work is disproportionately done by women but is devalued under capitalism and often unpaid.
Over the last four decades, changes in the organisation of production and class composition have significantly weakened working class organisations like trade unions, thereby undermining our previous sources of class power. In addition, the withdrawal of social benefits and services has made it increasingly difficult for people without a job to get by; regardless of the work they are doing in the ‘domestic’ sphere. In order to swing the balance of power back in our favour we need to reinvigorate old organisational forms and develop new ones that facilitate mutual aid and disrupt the circulation of capital. However, to build a world beyond capitalism the left also needs an alternative vision of the future and a set of demands that can mobilise people to fight for it.
The No Jobs Bloc demands point us in the direction of a post-work future, in which necessary labour is significantly reduced, we have more free time and autonomy to pursue our unique interests and we place greater value on caring for each other. They hold the potential to unite different social groups around a political project to challenge neo-liberalism.”

“Why do we support NO JOBS BLOC?
Women and non-binary people make up 73% of carers in the UK, who earn a disgusting 4p per hour from Carers Allowance for caring full-time for a loved one.
55% of people working on zero-hours contracts are women, disproportionately they are our migrant sisters and sisters of colour, who face discriminatory and exploitative conditions and the constant threat of poverty through unemployment.
Less than half of our disabled sisters are in paid employment. We believe that is due to ableist, sexist and classist capitalist structures that aim to divide, disempower and devalue us.
North London Sisters Uncut seeks a world where women and non-binary folks are safe from violence. Part of this would include having the economic freedom to escape gendered domestic and state violence regardless of where in the world we live.”

“DPAC are proud to support the No Jobs Bloc. We want a society where disabled people are valued as equals and free to explore every aspect of themselves. We want a society which doesn’t just account for our lives purely as either profit or loss in someone’s ledger account. While we live in a society collapsing under the pressures of capitalism, none of this is truly possible. In turn, none of us are ever truly free.
The institutional, structural, environmental and attitudinal barriers required to keep this failing system together completely exclude disabled people. This will not change without a radical re-thinking of how we organise ourselves – including our relationship with paid employment.
At this moment in the UK, the in-work poverty rates are higher than out-of-work poverty rates; the time for that radical re-thinking is now.
We urge all disabled marchers who are able, to join us on Saturday April 16th, assembling on Gower Street at 1pm.
Or alternatively join the short march route at 2pm on Charing Cross Road, outside the Hippodrome. See the map and details at http://www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/access_info “